Bob Kerr: For owner of animal sanctuary, some good news amid too much bad

Dan MacKenzie got some good news last week. He was due. MacKenzie was found innocent by District Court Judge Pamela Woodcock Pfeiffer in a case that one lawyer, Michael DiLauro, called “bizarre.” The...

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By
Bob Kerr
Posted Dec. 19, 2013 @ 9:35 pm

Dan MacKenzie got some good news last week. He was due.

MacKenzie was found innocent by District Court Judge Pamela Woodcock Pfeiffer in a case that one lawyer, Michael DiLauro, called “bizarre.” The verdict was a rare positive moment in what has been a very hard few years for MacKenzie, who is known for taking in and caring for abandoned animals.

The animal cruelty charges brought against MacKenzie always seemed questionable. The charges were based on a horse left in his care in the spring of last year by a woman who said she couldn’t afford the upkeep. MacKenzie agreed to provide a free stall at the Scituate farm where he operates an animal sanctuary and animal food bank with the understanding that she show up to feed and care for the horse. But MacKenzie said that week after week he ended up feeding the horse and “turning him out and bringing him in.”

When the horse started to lose weight last fall, MacKenzie said he told the owner the animal should be checked out and probably wormed. Instead, MacKenzie got a visit from the Rhode Island Society For The Prevention of Cruelty To Animals. SPCA officials saw the horse and left.

In March of this year, MacKenzie was taking his girlfriend Joanne to the hospital for cancer treatment when Scituate police showed up, handcuffed him and took him to the station. He was charged with animal cruelty. He said he had offered to put Dr. E.J. Finocchio, president of the SPCA, in touch with the actual owner of the horse, but he said Finocchio did not appear interested.

The arrest was one of the low points of a hard-luck run that started when MacKenzie lost his Bonniedale Farm on Snake Hill Road in Glocester to foreclosure in December 2009. He had raised more than $60,000 in donations from supporters of the animal sanctuary, which at one point had more than 100 animals in residence. But he could not come to an agreement with his bank on applying that money to the mortgage. He turned the money over to the SPCA. When he started another sanctuary at a rented farm in Scituate, he tried to get the money back but was turned down.

He has kept on, taking in abandoned animals and providing dog and cat food to those on tight budgets. But there has been a cost. Donations to Bonniedale Farm, the name MacKenzie continues to use, have dropped off sharply. And MacKenzie lost the Sunday morning radio show — “The Bonniedale Farm Rescue Show” — that he said was the source of many of those donations.

In court a week ago, MacKenzie said Judge Pfeiffer questioned why, if he is guilty of animal cruelty, the horse was the only underweight animal on the farm.

Following the verdict, DiLauro, an assistant public defender who assisted lead counsel Andy McElroy, said he knows of no other state where the SPCA has such broad powers to obtain arrest and search warrants and the power to arrest and seize evidence. He also said this case is the longest District Court case he has ever seen.

MacKenzie called the verdict an uplift for him and Joanne during what has been a very tough time. He continues his work. There are goats, ducks, chickens, roosters and a beagle currently at Bonniedale Farm.

He said it is his reputation and what he stands for that were at stake.